Baking // Christmas Melting Snowman Biscuits

December 2, 2014

DECEMBER IS HERE!!! That means it’s time to bring out the festive baking posts and I’m starting off with one of my fave Christmas treats – Melting Snowman Biscuits.

I love making these biscuits, they are so unbelievably easy and look how adorable they are! Almost too cute to eat…almost! The great thing about these biscuits is that if you get a bit busy in the lead up to Christmas you can always make the biscuit base in advance and decorate them later, or if you really are getting your tinsel in a tangle, just buy some rich tea or shortbreads and decorate them instead. Perfect for busy little elves and Santas helpers!

The sugar biscuit base is vanilla flavoured but not too sweet and you can make your icing as thick or thin as you’d like. They’re perfect for eating snuggled up by the fire and sipping on a hot chocolate.

INSTRUCTIONS:

1) Beat together your butter and golden caster sugar until you have a light, fluffy mixture.

2) Add your vanilla extract and then the beaten eggs bit by bit. If the mixture looks like it’s separated then add in a spoonful of flour and mix through.

3) In a separate bowl, sieve the flour and baking powder together and then add this slowly to the butter mix. Stir it all in and then use your hands to work it into a dough.

4) Tip the dough onto your floured work surface and knead into a ball. The mixture should be relatively wet and sticky. Split the ball into two, wrap each in cling film and then chill in the fridge for at least an hour.

5) Preheat your oven to 170C and line a couple of baking trays with greaseproof paper.

6) Once your chilling time is up, take out one half of dough and roll it out onto a lightly floured work surface. You’ll want your dough to be about 0.5cm thick.

7) Use a round cutter to cut out your circular biscuit shapes. Remember to make sure that the cutter is big enough to comfortably fit a marshmallow head and melted body.

8) Pop your biscuits onto the baking trays leaving room between them as they will spread a little whilst cooking. Bake them for 12-15 minutes until they are golden brown. Once removed from the oven, leave them on the baking trays to cool and harden for 10 minutes and then transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely.

(ignore the stars, they’re for another fabulously festive treat!)

9) Now time to make the icing! (This bit got a bit messy for me so I had to abandon taking photos, sorry! #IcingSugarEverywhere) This is uber simple and I don’t actually have measurements for this, I just do it by taste and eye to see how thick I want the icing and how much of it I need. Simply sieve some icing sugar into a bowl and then add a couple of tablespoons of water. Mix it together and it should form a runny paste. Keep adding water and icing sugar until you have a mix that is runny enough to spread but thick enough that it will hold.

10) Now time to make him a snowman! Once your biscuits are completely cooled, spread the water icing over the top. It’s up to you how much you put on, but I like to leave a rim of biscuit to make it look more like the snowman is melting (poor guy!)

11) Whilst the icing is still wet, place a marshmallow on top, making sure the wider part of the marshmallow is on the biscuit, which adds to the melting effect.

12) Leave the icing to set and form a slightly crisp layer on top and then it’s time to decorate! Use a black icing pen to add two coal eyes and a surprised mouth on the marshmallow, and an orange icing satsuma nose. Wrap a coloured scarf round his neck with another coloured icing pen, then add buttons and stick arms to the icing covering the biscuit base.

14) Leave the icing to set again then plate up and serve next to a lit candle for extra melting snowman effect!

I hope you enjoyed my first Christmas baking post of 2014! Let me know if you make any of these biscuits and tweet me a picture (@emsypickle) You can also see this recipe included in the Cotton Traders online advent calendar (behind window 13 – unlucky for some!!) so make sure you go and check out the other Christmas crafts and tips included in that too.